East Notes: Aho, Brassard, Green

The Hurricanes are expected to pick up extension discussions with winger Sebastian Aho in the coming days, GM Don Waddell acknowledged to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.  While the two sides aren’t setting the beginning of the regular season as a deadline to get something done, Waddell stated that the team is hopeful to have an agreement in place by then.

Aho has quickly established himself as one of Carolina’s top offensive weapons, leading the team in scoring last season with 65 points in 78 games.  He’s entering the final year of his entry-level contract that carries a cap hit of just $925K in base pay (with an extra $850K in potential performance bonuses).  Needless to say, the Hurricanes will have to give Aho considerably more than that to get him to put pen to paper on a new contract.

Elsewhere out East:

• Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that they will experiment with using center Derick Brassard on the wing in the preseason. Brassard stated at the end-of-season exit meetings that he had difficulty adapting to playing in the bottom six; moving him to the wing would allow the team to put him on a higher line.  If the experiment works, that would also help alleviate the small logjam the team has down the middle after re-signing Riley Sheahan as well as adding Derek Grant and Matt Cullen in free agency this summer and lessen the likelihood that they would deal from their surplus.
• Red Wings defenseman Mike Green will meet with the doctor that performed his neck surgery five months ago in the hopes of getting clearance to participate in training camp, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. Even if that happens, Detroit may limit him in preseason action as a precaution.  Green tried to play through the injury last season but struggled before the team shut him down in March.  That didn’t seem to affect his free agency, however, as he still inked a two-year, $10.75MM deal late in June.